Staple fiber reclaiming device for revolving flat cards



7 Oct. 6', 1931.

c. GEGAUFF ET AL STAPLE FIBER RECLAIMING DEVICE FOR REVOLVING FLAT CARDS Filed- May 10,1930 2 Sheets-Sheet m m m R m .n W

Oct. 6, 1931. 1,825,948

STAPLE FIBER RECLAIMING DEVICE FOR REVOLVING FLAT CARDS C. GEGAUFF ET AL.

Filed May 10. 1930 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented @ct. 6, 1931 STATES ATENT OFFICE qHAnLEs GneAUrr Ann .rtfLEs PFLiMLIN, oF-MULHoUsn, FRANCE STAPLE FIBER"BECLAIMING DEVICE IE OR REVOLVING FLAT CARDS Application filed May 10, 1930, Serial No. 451,292,;and in France May 23, 1929.

Our invention relates to revolving fiat cards and more particularly to devices coacting with the revolving flats for reclaiming the utilizable portion of the staple fibre on the flats and adding it to the fibre on the cylinder for re-working.

In the usual process of carding on revolving flat cards, the waste material is taken off continuously by the flats and is then stripped off the flats by a stripper roll located above the dofi'er and operating just after the flats have broken contact with the cylinder. It is a well known fact that these discarded flat strips contain a certain amount of good stock but owing to the construction of the card it has not been possible, so far as we are aware,

to separate this good stock from the actual waste which is all that the carding process should remove from the cotton for greater efiiciency.

The object of our invention is to increase the efiiciency of revolving flat cards by the provision of means for preventing waste of the good stock contained in the flat strips. 7e provide for cleaning the flats, as is now customary, but we do not discard all the fibre taken from the cylinder by the flat strips as is the function of the flat stripper now generally in use.

To the accomplishment'of this object we provide a novel mechanism designed to remove the flat strips from the flats after they have been subjected to a combing process ca I which eflectively removes the short waste fibres and dirt whereupon the usable staple fibre in the flat strips is returned to the cylinder to be re-worked and saved as good material. As against ex1st1ng arrangements, our invention. is characterized by the a following advantages: (1) our new mecha nism is arranged at the place where the flats enter into working contact with the cylinder so that the fibre taken or cleaned from flat In strips is immediately transferred to the cyl- 'inder .for re-working with the new fibre fed to'the cylinder by the licker-in, and before the strips thus taken from the flats are returned'to the cylinder for re-working, a cleaning process takes place.

" An important feature of our invention shown in Fig. 1;

consists of a needle clothed roll by which the flat strips are removed from the flats, during which removal the strips undergo a combing process and the combed-out impurities are thrown on or discarded before the re-work- '5 able fibre is returned to the cylinder. The lesign of our cleaning and/or staple fibre reclaiming device will vary with the particular design of the card but its location at the entrance of the revolving flats is always the same.

To the accomplishmentof the above object and such others as may hereinafter appear, as will readily be understood by those skilled in the art, our invention comprises the features andcomb-inations of parts hereinafter described and then particularly pointed out in the appended claims,

The nature and scope of the invention will be understood from a description of the forms illustrated by the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a diagrammatic view, in longitudinal section, of the usual type of revolving flat cotton carding engine in which the high speed cylinder and slowly. moving working flats move in the same direction;

Fig. 2 is a similarview, in section, of the detail of one form of our new staple fibre reclaiming mechanism, applied to the type of card shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a view, similar to Fig. 2, of a 'modified form of our mechanism for improving the efiioiency of the type of card Fig. 4 is a view, in section and on an enlarged scale, showing the relation to certain of'the flats illustrated in Figs. 2 and 8, of'our novel combination of comb and needle roll;

and

F ig. 5 is a view, similar to Fig. 3, showing a form of our mechanism as modified for application to the type of revolving flat card wherein the cylinder and working'flats move in opposite directions.

In the embodiment of the invention illustrated by Figs. 1, 2 and 4 we show a card cylinder 10, licker-in 12and doffer 14, as usual, with a plurality of flats 16 moving, whileat work, in the same direction as the cylinder. At the forward or entrance end of the revolving flats and between said end and the licker-in, we provide two needle clothed rolls 18 and 20, the former being above the latter and in co-operative relation to the passing flats, together with a stationary knife 22 located intermediate the needle roll 18 and the flats 16 as they successively reach the said roll.

The upper needle roll 18 rotates in the same direction as the revolving flats and operates to take off the flat strip from each passing flat 16 before said flat element reaches working position on the cylinder on its return movement. At this moment, the knife 22 operates in combination with the needles 24 of the passing flat and retards the transfer of the flat strip to the roll 18 in a manner similar to the action of the nippers of a comber, and the needles of the roll 18 then comb the tuft thus held fast (see Fig. 4). Thus the fibre on each returning flat element is combed, i. e. divided, disentangled and di' rected, by the roller 18 with the cooperation of the knife 22. The combed strips are transferred from the flats first to the roll 18 and are then caught by the roll which rotates at exceedingly high speed in a reverse direction to that of the cylinder. During said transfer to the roll 20 the impurities, which are found to be almost exclusively on the surface, are thrown off. The needle roll 20 is in co-operative or feeding relation to the cylinder 10 and the clean staple fibre salvaged from the flats is thereby returned to the c linder clothing to be again. subjected to t c carding process. The impurties thrown out from between the rolls 18 and 20 pass outward therefrom above a guard or partition 26 into a receptacle 28. A partition 30 (Fig. 2) may advantageously be placed between the revolving flats and the roll 20, having a portion entering the bite between these rolls, to protect the roll .20 and insure the transfer of clean staple fibre.

The modified form of the staple fibre rcrlaiming mechanism shown in Fig. 3 requires merely one needle roll 32 rotating in a reverse direction to that of the cylinder, in combination with the cylinder 3%, licker-in 36, revolving flats 38, and knife as illustrated in Fig. 3. The reworkable fibre is salvaged by combing, in the manner heretofore described, and the impurities of the combedout strips are thrown off into the receptacle 42 by dint of the high s )eed of revolution of the roll 32. The needle roll 32 then applies the cleaned fibre obtained from the strips to the cylinder for additional carding. In this design the clothing needles of the roll 32 are arranged on its circumferential surface in bundles 132 which are separated from each other by unelothed intervals or gaps, rather than having the complete clothing shown for the rolls 18 and 20 in Fig. 2.

For carding engines, as shown in Fig. 5 designed for the working flats 44: to move in a direction opposite to the rotation of the cylinder 46, fed by a licker-in 48, a special case is presented. A roll in the same position as before, clothed with needle bundles 150, takes the flat strips from the flats 4d. The roll 50 is driven at a very high speed, which may be one and one-half times as great as that of the cylinder 46, in a reverse direction to that of the cylinder as in the previously described constructions. Consequently the needles of the flats 44 and of the roll 50 are travelling in the same direction at their point of meeting, but because the needles of the successively passing flats pass slowly the action is that of retarding nippers, making the use of a combing knife unnecessary. In this form of our invention a substantial combing takes flat strips to the roll 50, and the loosened impurities thus brought to the surface are thrown off by the rapidity of the rotation into the receptacle 52. The cleaned flat strips now on the needle roll 50 added to the fibre on the cylinder for additional carding.

Our tests have proved that the reclaimed flat strips are cleaned to a higher degree by rollers having clothing which comprises needle bundles as illustrated in Figs. 3 and 5. Vs believe that this due to the effect on the staple fibre of the air pull of the needle bundles which, it may be said, operate in the nature of blower vanes thus adding materially to the cleaning capacity of the needles themselves.

It will be understood from the foregoing description that our novel device reclaims reworkable staple fibres and separates them from the actual waste and dirt and the clean staple fibres thus reclaimed are then returned to the cylinder for a re-working. This results in a considerably lower percentage of waste and, therefore, in an increased efliciency of the carding process.

The nature and scope of our invention having been indicated and in application in sev eral forms to carding engines having been specifically described, what we claim as new, 1s:-

1. A carding engine for cotton and like fibre having, in combination, a revolving flat, a cylinder and the following devices at the feed side of said cylinder, a licker in, a. needle clothed roll working with the flats before their re-entrance to working position on the cylinder, a stationary knife intermediate said roll and the flats, and a second needle clothed roll working with both said first needle clothed roll and the cylinder disposed above the licker-in.

2. A carding engine for cotton and like fibre having, in combination, a cylinder, a licker-in, a revolving flat, a needle clothed place prior to the transfer of the are then roll positioned to work with the flats before they return to working position on the cylinder and remove the flat strips therefrom, and means for engaging the strips successively and co-operating with said roll to cause the needles thereof to comb each strip as it is being removed from a flat.

3. A'carding engine for cotton and like fibre of the type having a licker-in, cylinder, revolving flat, doffer, and rotary means adjacent the entrance of the flats to working position on the cylinder for engaging and removing the successively passing flat strips and returning the staple fibre thereof to the cylinder for re-working, in combination with means for retarding the transfer of the flat strips from the flats to the said rotary means and cooperating with the said rotary means to salvage the said staple fibre from the said flat strips.

a. A carding engine for cotton and-like fibre of the type having a licker-in, cylinder, revolving flat, doffer, and a rotary needle clothed mechanism working on both the revolving flats and the cylinder disposed between the 'licker-in and the adjacent end of the revolving flat and functioning to transfer the staple fibre in the flat strips from the flats to the cylinder for re-working, in combination with a stationary knife between said rotary mechanism and the passing flats which acts as a retarding nipper across which the needle clothing of said mechanism combs the flat strips as they are removed from the flats.

5; A revolving flat carding engine for cotton and like fibre characterized by a needle clothed combing roll Working on the flats to salvage the flat strips just before they reenter working position on the cylinder, a

device intermediate said roll and flats acting to retard transfer of the flat strips to said roll and across which the strips are combed by the needles of said roll, and a needle clothed transfer roll, rotating at a very high speed in a reverse direction to that of said combing roll, working with both said combing roll and the cylinder to remove the combed strips from said combing roll, throw off the impurities by its high speed of revolu- 0 tion, and add the purified salvaged strips to the fibre on the cylinder.

In testimony whereof we aflix our signatures.

CHARLES GEGAUFF. JULES PFLIMLIN. 

